Post-World War II Europe sought to rebuild itself not only politically and economically, but also morally.
The Holocaust was viewed as a historical warning and as a profound moral failure of the entire continent. For decades, efforts were made to draw lessons from the past, shape a different attitude toward Jews and prevent the return of the ideas that led to one of the darkest periods in human history. Yet over the years, especially from the 1970s onward, those perceptions began to erode slowly.
At first, these were marginal phenomena that were not reflected in official systems. But beneath the surface, a quiet and troubling shift has been taking place in recent years, not only in the political arena or on the street, but specifically in classrooms and education systems. The question is not only what people in Europe think about Israel today, but what the next generation will be taught to think about it.
The education system is not merely a place for transmitting knowledge. It shapes consciousness, historical memory and moral perceptions. A child studying in school today will, in two or three decades, be a journalist, a member of parliament, a judge or a decision-maker.
That is why the question of what that child is being taught today about Jews, Israel and Jewish history is not a marginal issue, but a strategic question of the highest order. Today, it is possible to identify the growing penetration of a one-sided narrative into textbooks, lesson plans and educational discourse.
The struggle over Israel's image in Europe is also being waged in history class. And when the narrative is set in the classroom, it becomes truth in the eyes of the next generation. Particularly alarming are cases in which the events of the Holocaust in general, and the murder of the Jews in particular, are blurred and normalized.
At the same time, tolerance toward Jews and the Jewish religion is sometimes being replaced by discourse that supposedly highlights the violence inherent in them, creating a distorted continuum that runs from the "murder of Jesus" to the war in Gaza. Loaded terms such as "genocide" in the Israeli context are seeping into public discourse, and are sometimes even presented as agreed-upon fact rather than as a political or ideological position subject to debate.
Since Oct. 7, this process has accelerated. The Palestinian narrative no longer remains confined to politics or demonstrations, but is also seeping into education systems, teachers' unions and broader cultural discourse. The danger lies not only in the creation of hostility toward the State of Israel, but in the blurring of the line between political criticism and a negative attitude toward Jews living in European countries.
History teaches that deep shifts in consciousness do not happen in a single day. They are built gradually, through words, concepts and content taught at an early age. Therefore, the important question is not only how Israel responds to the current public diplomacy crisis, but how it deals with the shaping of the next generation's consciousness in Europe.
Time is running out. In 20 years, the children sitting in classrooms today will be the ones shaping public opinion, policy and attitudes toward Jews and Israel. The question is not only what Europe teaches about us, but whether Israel understands that the battle for the future begins now, inside the classroom.
